Australian company Cox Architecture has extended a house in the capital city, Canberra, with a lightweight glass and steel conservatory .
The clients, who have occupied the house in the city’s Blandfordia 5 Heritage Precinct for more than twenty years, requested larger and more effectively organised spaces for family members activities and entertaining visitors.
“Getting raised three young children in the street, Ron and Elena had a powerful want to remain in their household house, but had reached a point in which the house no longer supported their life-style,” explained Cox Architecture.
In specific, the unique kitchen spot was cramped and separated from the principal social regions, so the architects removed internal partitions and connected the lightweight construction to house a new kitchen and dining room.
The extension sits on an current outdoor terrace at the rear of the developing. Its building also enabled the creation of a large open-plan area, linking the entrance porch with a residing room tucked away at 1 end.
The unique stuccoed house was constructed in 1927 and types part of the Grant Crescent stretch of the conservation area – a collection of streets created according to garden-city planning principles imported from England.
Related story: Maddison Architects include timber-framed annex to log cabin in Victoria’s coastal forest
The steel framework and large windows supply a purposely contemporary counterpoint to the existing home, and improve the connection with its verdant backyard.
“The pavilion is a basic insertion with a refined but sturdy language,” said the architects.
“The clarity of the new form sits in considerate contrast to the previous. Its understated aesthetic is created to be the two obviously distinguishable from and subsidiary to the present heritage material.”
The simplicity and lightness of the extension guarantee that it does not dominate the form of the house.
“Externally the structure is visually permeable and floats above an current terrace, immersing itself into the landscape,” the architects continued. “The permeability and transparency of the pavilion within its backyard setting was central to making the really feel of a conservatory.”
Doors set into the glazed surface at one particular finish of the dining area lead onto an outdoor terrace that gives an alternative dining area.
The exposed steel frame surrounding the terrace recalls a summer time home from the authentic garden and will ultimately be covered in vines that will assist to shade this area.
A straightforward material palette of glass, steel, wood and stone was employed during the new spaces. Stone floor tiles in the dining location extend onto a patio and set of actions leading down to the backyard.
Other particulars, like the delicate frames surrounding the glazing and the box gutter that runs along the upper edge of the structural frame, were added to boost the contemporary aesthetic.
Photography by Rodrigo Vargas
Floor strategy 
Roof strategy 
Sections Dezeen
